Wave of new books addresses dictatorship in the 60th anniversary of the coup – 03/29/2024 – Power

The 60th anniversary of the coup comes accompanied by a wave of editorial releases and reissues about one of the most relevant passages in Brazil’s republican history.

The report selected 12 works. In this package of news, there are books by historians about that specific moment of rupture, late March and early April six decades ago, and about the broader period of the dictatorship, from 1964 to 1985.

Works that bring together articles, memories and chronicles by political and civil society leaders about the authoritarian regime also arrive in bookstores.

The wave of releases also brings works that recall Brazilian culture in the 1960s and 1970s. And reissues give new life to outstanding works that were out of print.

Non-fiction books predominate, but the dictatorship is also very present in short stories and even a graphic novel.

Historian and professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) Heloisa Starling launches “The Coup Machine – 1964: How Democracy in Brazil Was Dismantled”.

The book details the main stages of the rupture, following the period from March 31st, the day on which General Olympio Mourão Filho’s troops left Juiz de Fora towards Rio de Janeiro, to April 11th, when another general, Castello Branco , was elected by Congress to assume the Presidency – Castello was the only candidate.

This March, the first two chapters of the book were released online; the second part is published in April and, subsequently, the third and final. Later this semester, the physical book will arrive in stores.

Starling coordinates the Archives of Repression in Brazil collection, from publisher Companhia das Letras, which launches “The Unfinished Transition – State Violence and Human Rights in Redemocratization”, by historian Lucas Pedretti.

Roughly speaking, he details how, from the 1980s onwards, the country organized itself against the dictatorship’s violence towards opposition activists, but never rigorously faced police repression against peripheral groups, generally young black people. Thus, as he records, a “rigid dichotomy was established between political prisoners and ‘common criminals'”.

“Why did State violence against the former come to be seen as unacceptable by Brazilian society and against the latter is still seen as legitimate?”, Pedretti asks.

In “Absolute Illicit”, researcher Pádua Fernandes reconstructs a legal saga: the case carried out by the family of Amelinha de Almeida Teles against Colonel Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra.

The former head of DOI-Codi lost in every instance and, for the first time, an agent of the dictatorship was held responsible for torture. Ustra, as we know, is one of the idols of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

Among the books with contributions from various authors, one of the highlights is “Tempos de Chumbo”, which is part of My News Explica, a collection organized by the channel.

Among the 24 texts, the memories of the closest relatives of the deposed president João Goulart, known as Jango, stand out: the widow Maria Thereza and the children Denize and João Vicente.

Also among the authors are federal deputy Luiza Erundina (PSOL-SP), who recalls the discovery of a clandestine grave with over a thousand bones in Perus at the time when she was mayor of São Paulo, and former senator Pedro Simon (MDB- RS), which revives the movements of opposition to the military regime.

One of the assets of “Tempos de Chumbo” are the images recorded by Orlando Brito (1950-2022), one of the country’s main photojournalists during the dictatorship period. Carolina, his daughter, is the organizer of the book.

“Tempos de Chumbo” will be launched on Tuesday (2), at 10am, at the Senado, in Brasília, where an exhibition with photos by Brito will open.

Another release with several authors is “Um Novo Tempo”, a partnership between Mórula Editorial and Ação da Cidadania, an NGO founded by Betinho in the 1990s. It is organized by Daniel Souza, Gylmar Chaves and Paulo Abrão.

There are articles about the dictatorship that had already been published in previous books, such as those by writers Rose Marie Muraro and Frei Betto, and unpublished texts, written by names such as the director of Amnesty International in Brazil, Jurema Werneck, the historian Dulce Pandolfi and the journalist Miriam Leitão.

At least two books are also published that are dedicated to the dialogue between culture and those times of repression. In “Rebeldes e Marginais”, literary critic and essayist Heloisa Teixeira (formerly Buarque de Hollanda) recalls movements that she followed closely, such as tropicalismo, cinema novo and marginal cinema.

The launch is based on works published by her in the late 1970s and at the beginning of the following decade in co-authorship with journalist Marcos Augusto Gonçalves, editor of Ilustríssima.

The other novelty in this bridge that connects culture to politics is “Just a Latin American Woman”, in which, in a personal tone, journalist Bruna Ramos da Fonte addresses the engaging songs produced at that time in Brazil and neighboring countries.

Among the reissues, there are works of a more analytical nature, such as “Reinventing Optimism: Dictatorship, Propaganda and Social Imaginary in Brazil”, by historian Carlos Fico, and “A Esquerda e o Golpe de 1964”, by writer Dénis de Moraes.

And others with a more journalistic treatment, such as “The Case of the Nine Chinese”, written by Ciça Guedes and Murilo Fiuza de Mello. The book recalls the April 1964 episode in which Chinese people were tortured in Rio de Janeiro, the first international human rights violation scandal led by the Brazilian dictatorship.

Finally, there are the releases closest to fiction, such as “Na Corda Bamba”, the debut of historian Daniel Aarão Reis in literature. Divided into three parts – Dictatorship, Exile and Return –, this book of short stories brings together characters linked to the armed struggle and takes the author on a journey through autofiction.

Also a fiction with boots treading on reality, “Chumbo” is a graphic novel written and illustrated by Matthias Lehmann, a Frenchman from a Brazilian family. It tells the story of two brothers from Minas Gerais, Severino, a left-wing activist, and Ramires, a dictatorship enthusiast.

Severino, in fact, is inspired by one of Lehmann’s uncles, the writer Roberto Drummond (1933-2002), author of novels such as “Hilda Furacão”.